SME CXO Summit : Raising Voice of SMEs

In India, business and economy move and ride on the shoulders of small, and mid sized businesses. This being a concrete fact, we need to understand the core issues, challenges and USPs of small businesses in order to improve the level of overall business scenario in India.

With such a note, SME CXO Summit, 2010 was organised in Mumbai, India by Naseba and was highly recognised by the industry stakeholders.

All the participants in the two day events unanimously opined that the term SME must be concretely defined and accepted across all investment and banking sectors to ensure equal funding opportunities. This is just one of the several conclusions that arose from the SME CXO Summit India 2010 that ended on a markedly successful note.

SME access to financing would be tremendously enhanced if there is a standard understanding of what constitutes a small and medium enterprise in the legal context, according to Suzlon CFO Robin Banerjee.

Mr Banerjee was on the first panel of the SME CXO Summit India 2010, titled ‘Five challenges SMEs face in India’, which brought together leading businessmen from across the nation in an informative interactive discussion on the ways to circumnavigate obstacles in the way of SME growth. ASSOCHAM SME Expert Committee Co-chairman Bikky Khosla, on the same panel, suggested that alternate financing is ‘free consulting’ at its best, so why not go for it, despite its taxing nature? “The government cannot leap like a tiger, but you (SMEs) can,” he said, referring to the agility and malleable nature of SMEs.

Another important panel discussion focused on the question of ‘Are the SMEs actually willing to spend for Technology upgradation?’ Growing from micro to small or medium to big needs an open mind to invest in accessible technology. Preparedness to reinvent processes and methods needs to be facilitated through government initiatives to increase availability of latest technology in various segments. Learn from leading business leaders on how important technology plays and whether they have the willingness to spend on IT Infrastructure to help in their growth expansion.

With a focus on enhancing SMEs' competitiveness through information technologies, there was another panel discussion moderated by Sushanto Mitra, CEO, Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. In the panel it was discussed that; to compete effectively, organisations especially from the small and mid sized segment must embrace new technologies and be capable of manufacturing innovative products of high quality, low cost and best customer service. The panel was attended by Raj. K. Tarani, MD, AirNet Mobile, Dr. Nilay Yajnik, Professor & Chairperson (I.T.), Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies and S Srinivasan, Head of Information Technology, Sundram Fastners Ltd.

The summit brought forward several perspectives on how Indian SMEs can overcome monetary concerns, technology upgrades, government intervention and competition, among other issues.

Bombay Stock Exchange Deputy CEO Ashish Chauhan shed light on the growing relevance of getting listed on the stock exchange and also spoke about BSE’s plans for an SME exchange in the pipeline.

The summit sponsors played a vital role in delivering informative keynotes, and with Nokia, Mphasis, Salesforce.com, Sybase, Caliber Point, Allied Digital and IGI Insurance on board, the value of one-to-one meetings and roundtable discussions were significantly enhanced by their presence.

Salesforce.com Director - Sales & Engineering Anish Malhotra opened the technology session with a keynote on cloud computing and how to ‘grow your business, not your costs.’

Mphasis Regional Director for India & SAARC Rajiv Singh gave an informative presentation on managing change in an enterprise, while Nokia’s keynote on mobilising business emails with their service also received commendations from attendees.

Sybase India Director for pre-sales and service Sudesh Prabhu’s presentation on waking up to the world of mobility re-educated delegates on the growing relevance of “unleashing the power of unwired enterprise.”

Day Two:

Day two kick started with JSL Group CIO Ajay Kumar Dhir’s keynote address on innovations in Indian SMEs, covering issues of product, process and organisational innovation and the need of the hour to be ‘different’. The following panel on SME access to financing and the available offers led delegates into an intriguing discussion with Sequoia Capital India Advisors Principal G V Ravi Shankar, who delved into what investors look for in today’s Indian SMEs, and Eye-Q Co-Founder Rajat Goel discussed what it’s like to be on the flipside of the story and attempt to find the right investor.

On the second day, a panel discussion on the topic of going beyond boundaries was conducted. With the subject line of ‘Beyond the Indian borders’ Faiz Askari, Editor-Technology, SMallEnterpirseIndia.com moderated this panel discussion, and started the discussion by highlighting the global business opportunity. “Newer technologies like social media, online marketing are some of the effective tools for SMEs in order to establish capitalise the global business opportunities in a cost effective manner,” says Faiz Askari.

Besides, there was discussion on the new wave of small and mid-sized ‘Indian multinationals’ that is creating ripples in the global M&A stage . The possibilities of pushing the way beyond India and looking forward for opportunities outside the Indian geography for growth and development of SMEs weres also well discussed in the panel discussion. The panellists include, Mehul Patel, MD, Anupam Industries, V Kumaraswamy, CFO, J K Paper and Ajay Kumar Dhir, Group CIO, JSL Ltd.

Interactive roundtable sessions brought the event to a close on the second day’s afternoon on a very successful note, indicating the birth of yet another Naseba CXO series in the making, taking the form of another SME event next year.